First Appearance: Angel #5.6 "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"
(Fox for the WB Network, 5th November 2003)

History: In the 1950s Los Hermanos Numeros (The Number Brothers) were
a group of five luchadores (masked wrestler) brothers who defended the people
of Los Angeles against demons and other evil beings. When not in the ring,
they played hard, but they were ever vigilant for the call to battle, even
defeating El Diablo Robotico, a robot built by the Devil himself.

Sadly in 1953 they fought what looked to be their last battle. An Aztec demon,
Tezcatcatl, was killing heroes and eating their hearts, and if he was not
stopped before he completed his task, he would gain godlike power and plunge
the world into chaos and darkness. Los Hermanos Numeros opposed him, and
though they won the day, all but Numero Cinco fell in battle. Cinco buried
them in a cemetery behind San Gregorio. Each year, on El Dia de Los Muertos
(The Day of the Dead), he would visit their graves, but in spite of the Mexican
belief that the dead visit on that day, his brothers did not return to see
him.

Without his brothers, people stopped turning to Numero Cinco, who fell in
with an evil crowd. Fifty years passed, and Tezcatcatl returned from the
grave as part of his demonic cycle, ready to try once more to consume heroes'
hearts. This time he was opposed by the vampire with a soul known as Angel.
Angel discovered Numero Cinco's involvement in the demon's last defeat, and
so turned to him for help. Cinco was initially reluctant, the years having
worn him down, but did relate his sorry tale. On El Dia de Los Muertos, Cinco
used a talisman it wanted to lure the demon to San Gregorio, where he hoped
to either die, or to redeem himself. Angel arrived shortly before Tezcatcatl
did, and witnessed the start of the fight between demon and luchador. Injured,
Numero Cinco bled on his brothers' graves...and Los Hermanos Numeros arose!
Working in harmony once more, the four revenants and Angel killed Tezcatcatl,
driving stakes through his limbs to immobilise him, and then a final one
through his heart, banishing him for another fifty years.

Their jobs done, the four revenants gathered up Numero Cinco, who had redeemed
himself in death, and returned to the grave, finally reunited with their
lost brother.

Numero Cinco: "The five of us were always joined, always connected. And when
necessary, we came together as a fist. We fought monsters and gangsters.
Vampiros. We were heroes. We protected the weak... and we helped the helpless."

First Appearance: Angel #5.1 "Conviction" (Fox for the WB Network,
1st October 2003)

Powers/Abilities: Skilled fighter, superhuman strength.

History: Numero Cinco was once one of five luchador brothers, Los
Hermanos Numeros, who defended the Hispanic community of Los Angeles against
any and all threats. However when his siblings were all killed defeating
an Aztec demon, Tezcatcatl, Numero Cinco found that people stopped coming
to him for help - alone he was unwanted and swiftly forgotten by those he
had protected. He lost faith, and stopped viewing himself as a hero any more.
Thus it was that when Holland Manners, a lawyer from the evil firm Wolfram
and Hart approached him with a view to hiring him as muscle for the firm,
he agreed.

Fifty years later he was still working for them. When he had become too old
to continue to fight for them, they had given him a job in the mail room,
and now he delivered the mail throughout their L.A. offices. Known simply
as Number Five by the staff, who had no knowledge of his heroic past, he
felt old and a sell-out, and he no longer lived: he merely existed. The Hispanic
community remembered him and his brothers only as a joke, parodying them
with midget wrestlers in the ring, a fact which made him extremely bitter.
Each year, on the Day of the Dead, he would visit his brothers' graves and
light candles for them, but they never came back to visit as tradition said
they should; Cinco viewed this as another sign of his fall from grace.

Then
Tezcatcatl arose again, once more seeking to consume the hearts of heroes.
Hearing this news, Numero Cinco at first wanted nothing to do with the attempts
to kill him again, feeling that heroes were fools, unwanted and unappreciated
by those they saved. However the vampire with a soul known as Angel tried
to convince him otherwise, even after Tezcatcatl passed Cinco by: even the
demon felt his heart was not heroic enough. However Tezcatcatl also needed
a talisman to complete his plans, which Numero Cinco had in his possession.
Since it was the Day of the Dead, he went to visit his brothers' graves,
taking the artifact with him, hoping to lure the demon into a final battle.
When both Tezcatcatl and Angel showed up, Numero Cinco informed them he had
swallowed the talisman, so that the demon would have to kill him to retrieve
it. Tezcatcatl stabbed him through the stomach, but as he bled onto the ground,
hands erupted from the nearby graves...and Los Hermanos Numeros returned
from the dead. Working as a team, they swiftly eliminated their opponent,
while Numero Cinco watched on, to hurt to join in. Angel, who had dealt the
killing blow to Tezcatcatl, went to the stricken man, telling him that he
had proven himself worthy once again, which is why his brothers had come
back. Seconds later, Numero Cinco passed away, and his corpse was gathered
up by his siblings. They returned to their gravesite, and then all five faded
away like dreams.